Sometimes I wonder if I really know how to love others. I mean, love them, as in totally accepting them for who they are and how they live their lives.
Life experience tells me that this doubt is shared by many. We are human, after all, and no one is so confident in themselves that they feel themselves perfected and capable of unconditional love. I know from studying the Christian Scriptures that even Jesus wondered if he could love this way.
To love others in the sense of eternal love, or as some would say, "God's love," we must love them despite our inadequacies and their capabilities. We must set aside how we feel about ourselves and how we feel about them, and love them past and through it all.
It might even be, that we have no contact with a beloved parent or child, for whatever reasons. It might be a friend of whom we cannot agree politically or religiously, and it is best not to be in contact. It could be a desire to love a spouse in a deeper, more meaningful way. It might even be a relative who has committed a horrible crime.
Whatever the situation, to love another with an eternal love, means to let go of everything: feelings, opinions, needs, expectations, desires, or, as Buddha would say, attachments, and love them beyond our manifested self.
Love them with that self within that is beyond our conscious self. It is difficult at first to love beyond our self. We have to learn to let go of everything but love.
Whatever causes us to love this way is a blessing. A gift from the Infinite. It is a taste of true Grace. It is an experience which takes us out of this reality and into eternity.
